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A long-term lease for the Ottawa Stadium is up for grabs again but some councillors are convinced baseball has struck out in the nation’s capital.

Gloucester-Southgate Coun. Diane Deans said the stadium has been a money pit and council should stop dumping money into it.

“I actually think the time has come,” Deans said during a council meeting Wednesday.

Deans asked management to find out how much money the stadium has cost taxpayers over the years.

Mayor Jim Watson shot back, saying if council wants to know how much the stadium is losing, then it should consider how much other recreation facilities are losing, too.

Orléans Coun. Bob Monette wanted to know how much economic development was generated from the stadium.

“This stadium has a lot of potential. I would never vote to tear it down,” Monette said.

Capital Coun. David Chernushenko said he wants baseball to succeed this time, but “those glory days are basically one year” when the Ottawa Lynx triple-A club was on the field. However, he’s willing to give it one more try.

“We really do have to be prepared to say no at some point,” Chernushenko said.

Rideau-Rockcliffe Coun. Peter Clark said the stadium, which is in his ward, has been “ignored” and there has been past success with baseball.

“The fact that the ball stadium after years of neglect is likely to cost us a little more to get it back in shape is a reality,” Clark said.

“If you neglect your infrastructure you pay a price, usually a bigger one.”

Innes Coun. Rainer Bloess failed to convince council to defer the debate and explore other development opportunities for the site.

Despite some cold feet, the majority of council agreed to relaunch the lease competition in hopes of finding a minor league pro baseball team — ultimately with an affiliation to the Toronto Blue Jays — to be the primary tenant of the city-owned ballpark.

This time, council wants to shut out brokers from responding to the request for offers.

The city previously negotiated with Beacon Sports Capital Partners to bring a double-A Eastern League club to Ottawa. Beacon Sports, an experienced sports franchise brokerage firm, was representing a team but couldn’t land a deal with the city.

The stadium requires $10 million-$30 million in repairs and upgrades before a pro ball team takes the field.

How much money taxpayers will need to sink into the facility will be up to what kind of financial models proponents pitch to the city.